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> The foundational issue, however, is the tendency
> of companies to require unpaid overtime to mask poor project
management.
> Sure, there are times on some projects when heroic effort and overtime
> near release date is required because of unforeseen events, but that
> should be an extraordinary occurrence. If every project, every time,
> only gets done because people are pulling all-nighters and working
> weekends, they are probably allowing rampant scope creep, not tracking
> work correctly, and don't have a handle on change control, among other
> issues. One would think a company such as Sun Microsystems would have
a
> little more organizational maturity than that.

Disclaimer: I was a little busy at the end of last week, and we (Canada)
had a holiday on Monday, so I'm sorry if this is a tad late...

Here's one thing to consider in the saga:

When a small-ish company with informal/semi-formal processes - that have
worked smoothly for years - is acquired by a much larger, older entity
that has massive, rigorous, thoroughly documented formal procedures, it
can take well over a year for the small company to switch over, without
sacrificing any of the "current" and near-future projects and schedules.
Everything happens slower / takes more time when you are unfamiliar with
the workings of the infrastructure, and a new infrastructure needs to be
overlaid on the ways that you've been accustomed to using... then the
old ways "smoothly" yanked out, leaving the dishes and crystal of the
new forms undisturbed on the banquet table of your work.... er....
ah.... I think we've just witnessed a metaphor be tortured to death -
sorry you all had to see that.

Anyway, I can see that the new members of the borg might be working
extra hard and extra long to accomplish not much more than they did the
year before the collective came for them. (!! Another metaphor? So
soon? OH, just STOP it! Schmeck-schmeck-schmeck! )

Perhaps if the suing writer had held out just another few months, the
operation would have turned the corner and the purchased unit would have
finally blended into the collec... er into Sun, and hew whole group
would have been toasting the success, savoring the bonuses, and settling
into the joys of reasonable, predictable workloads and hours.

I'm just sayin'.

Kevin

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